The Commercial Court has heard the Quinn family's legal action against a claim by the former Anglo Irish Bank for the repayment of €2.3bn in loans could take up to nine months.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly set a provisional date for the action for April next year but said it was not set in stone.
The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, told the court it would be presenting the Quinn family with 60,000 documents connected to the case.
The court was told the Quinn family have no legal representation at present, but hope to have a new legal team in place in the next two weeks.
Members of the Quinn family are claiming they are not liable for loans of €2.3bn, which they say were illegally given to prop up the share price of Anglo.
Seán Quinn's son-in-law Naill McPartland, who is representing the family, but is not a party to this action, said ideally they would like a trial date before the second anniversary of the litigation, which falls next May.
He said by then it would be "two long years" of litigation and the Quinn family would be ready to meet their obligations on providing witness statements in the coming weeks.
Lawyers for the bank had asked the court not to fix a date for hearing as there were issues outstanding regarding discovery of documents.
Barrister Barry O’Donnell said the trial would take between six to nine months and would involve a series of complex issues with expert evidence.
He anticipated that 60,000 documents would be produced by the bank to support its case.
